It's not exactly Charles Stanley material...

a note from your tastebuds: finish strong

those are the words that hang on the point of purchase marketing material next to the double doors in chick fil a free standing unit 1570 otherwise known as my second home...

its supposed to be a poster that spurs you  to desire a slice of lemon pie, or a milkshake, or one of our other desserts

but its so much more....those last 2 words at least...for me

finish strong.

tony dungey is quoted as saying wherever you are today, be all there

those are the words ive been holding and chewing on the last couple of weeks

finish strong, and be all here...

but finishing strong sucks

and here is why

its hard to leave a place when youve finished crappy

its equally hard to leave a place when youve finished really well

when youre doing really great you dont wanna leave

so i kind of wish that as i leave this particular season i was finishing in some sort of neutral territory

but then that whole...what would Jesus do thing comes into play

when you leave some place on neutral ground, youve made nothing memorable, youve left no impact, no legacy...

and i would imagine that Jesus wouldnt be a fan of leaving something the same as when you got there...

sand didnt ever seem to be a real great thing in the Word...it always represented things that would fall, fail, and be blown away

so why then would we want the footprints we leave places to be those that are similar to footprints in the sand...why would our desire ever be that we leave footprints that are seen in the first few minutes after its left....

i would rather leave footprints in cement...

similar to those of the dog that ran through the garage when the house im living in was built...i have no idea what kind of dog it was, no clue what house the dog resided at, what the dog was doing in that cement, or anything else about it...other than that it was a dog

so my hope is that the footprints Christ allows me to leave will be looked upon in the future and someone will say i dont know who that was that made those footprints, i dont know where they lived or what they did or why they were here...i dont know what they did before or what they did after, but i know that the origin of this person was Christ...this person was a Christian

because sooner than we know or realize our names dont matter, our minor choices that seem so big dont really make that big a deal, because for about the billionth time...this isnt about you...or me...

this isnt about how big or great or much or different or fill in the blank you and your life are...this is all about leaving an impact where people only know later Who We Were, not who we were

so wherever you are in this moment...be there

and whether your finishing, starting, or just smack dab in the middle...

be all there, and while youre there: stand strong enough to make impact in cement but dont try and linger so your initials can be carved too...